Rules of decorum have mostly been thrown out the window in Washington D.C., so I know it’s unfashionable and probably futile to propose a new one. However, I’m going to go for it anyway: If you support the murdering of babies until literally the moment they’re born, you don’t get to invoke the name of Jesus to attack Republicans.

Fair? I think so. Aside from the ethical considerations, one might even call it cultural appropriation. Either way, it seems like a common sense compromise.

California Democrat Rep. Ted Lieu, unfortunately, is not a huge fan of common sense. This is a guy who has repeatedly tried to push a measure that was more or less a duplicitous attempt to have the president removed under the 25th Amendment by setting up a committee that could find him mentally ill. Meanwhile, Lieu was the same guy who walked out of a moment of silence in Congress for the Texas church shooting victims in 2016 and livestreamed himself on Facebook doing it. For some reason, I keep thinking there’s an ironic connection between those two things. Perhaps it’s just me.

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Anyway, Lieu was in the headlines again this Friday, this time for a tweet attacking the Trump administration’s policy of prosecuting parents who try to sneak their children with them illegally over the border into the United States.

“The Attorney General directed the U.S. Attorney’s offices to adopt a zero-tolerance policy for all offenses referred for prosecution,” a Homeland Security official said, according to The Hill.

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There are several different rationales for this policy. The first, obviously, is that it would act as a deterrent to parents who were trying to illegally bring their children into the United States. Any parent trying to cross the border in such a manner is putting their child at grave risk. Also, there’s been a significant rise in illegal immigrants seeking asylum with their children from Central American nations; the policy is designed to put an end to spurious claims of credible fear of returning to their country of origin.

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But, according to Ted Lieu, the policy would “shock Jesus.”

“There are many ways to describe the @realDonaldTrump policy of ripping children away from their parents at the border. It violates human rights laws. It is unAmerican. It would shock Jesus. But I think the most appropriate way to describe it is this: The policy is evil,” Lieu tweeted.

There are many ways to describe the @realDonaldTrump policy of ripping children away from their parents at the border.

It’s a rare day that America is lectured on evil by a man who livestreamed himself walking out of a moment of silence for mass shooting victims in order to make a point about — well, who knows?

That’s not even the most retch-inducing part of the rant, though. Instead, a man who has emerged as a leader of a party that’s done everything in its power to excise Jesus from the public sphere while actively supporting the unlimited power to end life in the womb up until the point of birth invoked the name of the very Savior his political career has been an open affront to.

I’ve read the Bible pretty thoroughly, and my NKJV doesn’t have a passage that says, “But lo, your country can’t have border controls, particularly those designed to discourage parents irresponsible enough to try and smuggle their progeny across inhospitable lands, likely with the help of human traffickers. This is unacceptable to the Lord our God.” Perhaps it’s just the translation I’m using.

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However, here’s just a small sampling about what the Bible says about the unborn:

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.” — Jeremiah 1:5

“For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth.” — Psalm 139:13-16

“Because he did not kill me before birth, So that my mother would have been my grave, And her womb ever pregnant.” — Jeremiah 20:17

“If men fight, and hurt a woman with child, so that she gives birth prematurely, yet no lasting harm follows, he shall surely be punished accordingly as the woman’s husband imposes on him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if any lasting harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.” — Exodus 21:22-25

Now, here’s what the Democrat Party platform says about abortion: “We believe unequivocally, like the majority of Americans, that every woman should have access to quality reproductive health care services, including safe and legal abortion—regardless of where she lives, how much money she makes, or how she is insured … We will continue to stand up to Republican efforts to defund Planned Parenthood health centers, which provide critical health services to millions of people. We will continue to oppose—and seek to overturn—federal and state laws and policies that impede a woman’s access to abortion, including by repealing the Hyde Amendment (which bars the use of taxpayer funds to pay for abortions except in the case of the life of the mother).”

And here’s what Rep. Ted Lieu said about a 2015 bill which would have banned abortions after 20 weeks: “Legislation like H.R. 36 that limits abortion rights is actually about federal control over our most private and personal decisions. It’s about violating a woman’s conscience and her right to free agency over her own body. It’s dangerous and unconstitutional.”

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This appears to diverge from the Bible just a wee bit, I must confess — especially since the subtext of both statements is that any attempt to impede abortion at any point during the pregnancy is anathema to Democrat dogma. And this isn’t getting into anything regarding the left’s antipathy toward any outward display of religion (at least if that religion is Christianity).

I am not Jesus, Ted, so I do not know if he’s on your side. Having read the scripture He divinely inspired, however, I have a fairly good idea that maybe He’s not the moral authority you want to be quoting — not, at least, as you’re one of the most visible members of a party that believes ripping an unborn child out of the womb at any point during gestation shouldn’t be abrogated by any law whatsoever.

If you do want to start quoting the Nazarene carpenter, however, I have a book suggestion for you. Until then, I would suggest you check your secular privilege and stop appropriating historical and spiritual figures whose teachings you’ve spent a career spitting in the face of.

Writing under a pseudonym, Cillian Zeal is a conservative writer who is currently living abroad in a country that doesn't value free speech and exercising it would put him in danger. He became a staunch right-winger at the age of three: While watching a clip of Ronald Reagan, he told his mother (to her great horror), "Mom, I'm a Republican." Except for a brief, scarring and inexplicable late high-school dalliance with Ralph Nader and his ilk, he's never looked back.
Aside from politics, he enjoys spending time with his wife, literature (especially British comic novels and modern Japanese lit), indie rock, coffee, Formula One, and football (of both American and world varieties). He is the proud owner of a very lazy West Highland white terrier and an extraordinary troublesome poodle mix of indeterminate provenance.